BBB Interview with the filmmaker Ado Hasanovic

The 8th BBB Short Film Festival gave the Audience Prize 2017 to the fiction short film “Pink Elephant”  which is an Italian production by Ado Hasanovic who is from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The audience that attended the Festival distinguished Ado’s film who participates at BBB Festival for 3rd time. We spoke with Ado in order to come closer to his world and inspiration!


How did you get inspiration for your film? What inspired the characters and the story your film tells?
The film was inspired by a real fact when a man recognized his daughter in a porn movie. Later I wrote the script together with my two Italian colleagues Anna Zagaglia and Silvana Tamma at Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, National Film School in Rome, under the supervision of my teacher, Daniele Luchetti.

Could you tell us a little bit more about the whole creative process behind your work and more precisely behind the film?
I worked on the script for about six months and two months before the shooting Daniele Luchetti suggested me that the story could take place in Sarajevo; the idea seemed great to me, because it would have let me highlight different themes instead of the ones usually underlined when talking about Bosnia and Herzegovina – mainly war and facing the past.
I chose the members of my team, Andrea Gabriele (Director of Photography), Marco Torresin (Set Designer) and Eloisa Libutti  (Costume Designer), and I started to work on the visual style of the film.
Working on the script and developing the characters was a fundamental work for me. To make the right casting for the film I got support from Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo, especially from the Bosnian film director Srđan Vuletić.  I chose three Bosnian actors: Jasna Žalica, Izudin Bajrović and Amila Terzimehić, and one Italian actor Fabrizio Colica.

pink elephant

How was the filming experience for you? What was the most unexpected thing that happened?
The filming experience was unique because I decided to shoot the film in a studio in Rome. It was a big challenge for me and for my Italian set designer because we needed to recreate a Sarajevo-looking atmosphere in Rome. There were not any unexpected moments because we prepared everything in detail. I can say that the most curious thing about shooting Pink Elephant was that I was giving indications in three languages: in Italian to the crew, in Bosnian to the actors and in English for scenes involving both the Italian and the Bosnian actors.

bbb interview pink elephant

Which filming or writing moment you would distinguish?
The funniest moment was the one in which the father, Izudin Bajrovic, and the daughter’s boyfriend, Fabrizio Colica, are drinking on the sofa: the actors did not understand each other, which made the entire scene look very realistic.

How do you feel for being part of BBB Festival?
This is the third time I attend the BBB Film Festival and I feel honored and happy about this. The festival is a great opportunity for Balkan authors to know each other and bring their works outside of our area to a broader audience.  This edition was a peculiar one because I could physically attend the festival in Brussels and meet a lot of talented people.

Which is your opinion about Balkan cinematography and opportunities? Is there a market for Balkan shorts?
Noticeable realities are the ones of the Cine-link Market that takes place during the Sarajevo Film Festival, Sofia Meetings, and the Balkan Film Market in Tirana, but unfortunately, they are dedicated to the feature films only. It would be great to have something similar for short films as well. We do not have a lot of possibilities for cinema in general: in Bosnia, there is a huge problem of public financial support, but I know that in other Balkan countries budgets are higher. But also with a small budget, we find a way to shoot film and tell the story.